Desert Blood Drive Scheduled

Coachella Valley residents are being asked to roll up their sleeves for the Fourth Annual Nine Cities Blood Drive Challenge.

The one-day event is scheduled to be held from noon to 6 p.m. July 21 at the headquarters of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, 3111 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, said Don Escalante, spokesman for LifeStream Blood Bank in San Bernardino.

LifeStream, which services approximately 80 hospitals, is sponsoring the blood drive along with Palm Springs, which is one of the nine cities participating. Other cities vying to donate the most blood are Cathedral City, Coachella, Indio, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Desert Hot Springs.

Past blood drives have collected between 600 and 700 pints of blood and organizers hope to get at least 600 pints this year.

“If we could get above 700 pints that would be great,” Escalante said.

Most of the blood collected will go to hospitals in the Coachella Valley, and all of it will end up at medical facilities in the Inland Empire, Escalante said.

Between 10 and 15 percent of those who want to donate don’t pass the screening process. Everyone else goes through a four-step, one-hour process that includes a series of lifestyle and background questions, followed by a check of blood pressure, iron level and pulse rate.

All donors are limited to one pint each.

Because the Coachella Valley’s population drops during the summer, hospitals in the region routinely run short of blood during that time. That means many of them rely heavily on the mid-year blood drive to replenish their supplies.

“There aren’t as many people, which means there aren’t as many donors,” Escalante said. “That makes it very tough on the hospitals, because while the blood supply drops, the demand for blood doesn’t go away.”

For more information call 1(800) 879-4484.